Leeds Bradford Airport dismay as BA reduces Heathrow flights

Leeds Bradford Airport (LBA) has criticised British Airways (BA) after the airline has decided to reduce the number of weekly flights to Heathrow from 20 to 10 in each direction.

A spokesperson for the airport today said they were “disappointed” at the 50 per cent decrease in flights by the company from the Yeadon facility to the London airport.

BA tonight confirmed that the "difficult" decision had been made.

The statement from LBA reads: “We are disappointed with the decision of British Airways to reduce the frequency of its services to Leeds Bradford Airport.

“As the international gateway for Yorkshire and given our continued support for a third runway at Heathrow, this news is disappointing for the largest region in the UK.

"We have previously stated that we believe Heathrow expansion will enable Yorkshire to attract even more inward investment, exports and tourism by providing greater reach to key international markets via our own air link to Heathrow.”

“We hope the people of Yorkshire will still fully support the route, enabling us to prove to British Airways that the largest region in the UK can support a viable and profitable service going forward.”

Sean Doyle, British Airways’ director of networks, said: "We are maintaining the important air link between Yorkshire and Heathrow, but have had to take the difficult decision to reduce the frequency of flights to match demand. We will maintain a daily service and on the busiest days of the week there will be two flights a day to and from Heathrow.

"We appreciate that the connections from Heathrow are important for business and leisure travellers and we are retiming the morning flight so that customers can more conveniently connect to more of our long-haul flights."

The decision comes as LBA is looking to expand its reach with a Strategic Development Plan up to 2030, which it believes could provide 5,500 new jobs.